Dungeons & Dragons: Arena of War Revealed

But Dungeons and Dragons’ Forgotten Realms isn’t your typical world. And Wizards of the Coast's The Sundering isn’t your typical RPG event. The newly-announced year-long event will change the face of the Forgotten Realms forever.

“In The Sundering, two planets are literally being pulled apart,” Dungeons & Dragons Brand Director Nathan Stewart told IGN. “Over the years we’ve tweaked the world, tweaked magic and made other changes that players didn’t enjoy. The Sundering will put the Forgotten Realms back together - back the way players want."

“We didn’t want to just hand-wave these changes, or retcon them,” Stewart continued. “The Sundering provides a narrative reason for the return to the Forgotten Realms we know fans love. We want the process to be transparent, public, and open.”

Exit Theatre Mode

The Sundering’s story will progress and evolve over the course of an entire year, told through tabletop Encounters at hobby shops, multiple novels (kicking off with a new R.A. Salvatore Drizzt novel out now), as well as Arena of War, a new freemium D&D mobile game developed by DeNA.

“Arena of War is intended to provide a ‘quick fix’ between bigger D&D experiences,” Stewart explained. “It’s got iconic D&D locations like the sewers beneath Baldur’s Gate... monsters like the Beholder and Gelatinous Cube. But this is much more of a ‘battle action’ RPG. It provides short, fun experiences for phones and tablets that don’t get as super deep into the D&D mechanics.”

The most interesting aspect of Arena of War, due out later this month, is that live updates throughout the year-long Sundering event will evolve the game.

“This is super exciting for us because previously D&D changes might take a year to be implemented in new books,” Stewart said. “But we’ll be making changes in realtime to Arena of War.”

“Players will actually have a direct impact on this event that can then be reflected a little later on in the video game,” Stewart continued. “Players that participate in our Murder at Baldur’s Gate event running in hobby shops can report their results each week using a free app. We’ll be aggregating the outcome and making narrative shifts based on majority outcome.”

IGN will have more on Arena of War in the coming weeks as it nears launch. As for The Sundering, you can experience it for yourself at your local hobby shop.

Justin Davis is the second or third best-looking Editor at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @ErrorJustin and on IGN.